I'm Jewish & Hypocrisy of Republican Islamophobes on Ilhan Omar is Breathtaking

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  • #98587
    zn
    Moderator

    I’M JEWISH, AND I FIND THE HYPOCRISY OF REPUBLICAN ISLAMOPHOBES HOUNDING ILHAN OMAR BREATHTAKING | OPINION

    REBECCA VILKOMERSON

    Rebecca Vilkomerson is Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace

    https://www.newsweek.com/ilhan-omar-gop-antisemitism-israel-jewish-1352797?fbclid=IwAR26hRtm1Bpqw_A9Xm-f72TpZHYXk2vspaAoh7JQGfCVNa0vZ9fbccDQfOg

    Representative Ilhan Omar is facing censure in the House, brought in part by her own party leaders. She is also facing shockingly Islamophobic attacks calling her a terrorist, simply because she is a Muslim. And all the while, other congressional leaders are tweeting out unabashedly anti-Semitic messages with abandon.

    The hypocrisy is breathtaking enough at its own right, but it is also an indicator of the fight between an emerging progressive coalition that seems different than Congressional generations of old, and which increasingly integrates Palestinian rights into its agenda, based on universal rights and the need for equality and freedom for all people.

    Representative Ilhan Omar is also part of a class of newly elected Congresspeople who don’t look much like Congresspeople of generations past: dynamic women of color from communities (Black and Muslim in Ilhan Omar’s case,) who face some of the fiercest racism and xenophobia in this country.

    Not coincidentally, it is young people, women, and people of color who make up the emerging coalition of progressive people that support Palestinian rights as a natural part of an agenda based on fairness, dignity and freedom. This is the context around the accusations of anti-Semitism and islamophobia in the last weeks centering on Representative Omar. While some critics of Representative Omar’s tweets made them in good faith, too often they were part of a cynical strategy to paint this emerging progressive coalition as anti-Semitic.

    As one of two of the first Muslim-American women in Congress, Ilhan Omar is facing a specific set of demands and attacks. Accusations of anti-Semitism are being used to silence her criticisms of Israel. An obvious form of Islamophobia coming from the right is attacking her directly for her identity. A soft form of Islamophobia is evident in the lesser degree of concern expressed for the far more outrageous attacks on her personally. And many more liberal elected officials and others are making a false claim of equivalence between calling out of Omar’s tweets (which were about Israel) and calling out Islamophobia against Omar herself.

    Rep. Omar has engaged with critics who brought up good faith critiques of her language and has shown true commitment to live up to her values—unlike other members of Congress who continue to promote anti-Semitic messages

    Even before the West Virginia GOP posted a heinous Islamophobic poster linking Representative Ilhan Omar to the attacks of 9/11 because she is Muslim, the Islamophobia at play in the attacks on Omar was blatantly clear. As Omar tweeted: “My Americanness is questioned by the President and the @GOP on a daily basis, yet my colleagues remain silent.” At he same time, Congressional leaders are making actual anti-Semitic statements – like the tweet posted over the weekend by Rep. Jim Jordan, spelling Tom Steyer’s name with a dollar sign instead of an S, or then-Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s tweet about Jewish donors which are going all but unnoticed, and certainly unpunished.

    anti-Semitism—specifically as an expression of right-wing white supremacy—has never been in such proximity to power, at least in my lifetime, and Jewish people from across the political spectrum are rightfully frightened. Charlottesville, what feels like a cascade of graffiti and physical attacks on Jewish people—and above all else, the murderous attack in Pittsburgh—are making many of us revise our belief of our safety in this country, especially those of us who are white and who have not been singled out as directly for abuse, in recent lived experience.

    That makes it confusing when critiques of Israel, support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), or even anti-Zionism are presented as part of the continuum of anti-Semitism that Jews in the U.S. are facing in this era.

    It has never been more important to be able to distinguish between the critique—even the harshest critique—of a state’s policies (Israel,) and discrimination against a people (Jews.) Israel does not represent all Jews. Not all Jews support Israel. Speaking out for Palestinian human rights and their yearning for freedom is in no way related to anti-Semitism, though the Israeli government does its best to obscure that. And yes, there are anti-Semites who support Palestinian rights. They have no place in any movement for justice, which Palestinian leaders of the movement have made very clear.

    We also know that in the last several months, leading Black scholars and activists, from Angela Davis to Marc Lamont Hill to Michelle Alexander have spoken out strongly on behalf of Palestinians—and found themselves targeted in return. The policing of people of color, including Ilhan Omar, who speak out on Palestine—the higher standards to which they are held, and the assumptions of bad faith by which their words are judged make their leadership on this issue all the more remarkable, but it means they are also paying an almost unbearable cost.

    The exhaustion and rage that so many people—Muslims, Palestinians, Black people, Jews of color, and Jews who support Palestinian rights—are feeling as these battles continue to play out does have one silver lining. The only antidote to the pro-Israel lobby is building a strong, grassroots movement of people willing to stand up for Palestinian rights. That’s what ended U.S. support for apartheid in South Africa, its what won limited civil rights victories for Black Americans, and it’s what shifted American views on gay marriage over the course of ten short years. And that’s what we’re seeing today.

    It is no surprise that the first elected officials defending Palestinian human rights are facing such fierce opposition from defenders of the status quo. Omar herself is not backing down, firing back at her critics: “Being opposed to Netanyahu and the occupation is not the same as being anti-Semitic. I am grateful to the many Jewish allies who have spoken out and said the same… We must be willing to combat hate of all kinds while also calling out oppression of all kinds.”

    Omar will be joined by many more, but only if we’re willing and able to fight to defend them—by speaking about anti-Semitism with precision, by challenging racism and islamophobia, and by holding our institutions and elected officials accountable.

    #98592
    Billy_T
    Participant

    Excellent article by Paul Waldman on the same subject:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/05/dishonest-smearing-ilhan-omar/?utm_term=.196551af79ee

    The dishonest smearing of Ilhan Omar

    Excerpt:

    In what is surely the most shameful decision of her current term as speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided that the time has come for the House to rebuke Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for things she didn’t actually say, and ideas she didn’t actually express. In the process, Pelosi and other Democrats are helping propagate a series of misconceptions about anti-Semitism, Israel, and U.S. political debate.

    I’m going to try to bring some clarity to this issue, understanding how difficult it can be whenever we discuss anything that touches on Israel.

    To be clear, I do this as someone who was raised in an intensely Zionist family with a long history of devotion and sacrifice for Israel, but who also — like many American Jews — has become increasingly dismayed not only by developments in Israel but by how we talk about it here in the United States.

    In the latest round of controversy, Omar said during a town hall, regarding U.S. policy toward Israel, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” This comment was roundly condemned by members of Congress and many others for being anti-Semitic. Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) called her statement “a vile anti-Semitic slur” and accused her of questioning “the loyalty of fellow American citizens.”

    Pelosi then announced that the House would vote on a resolution which, while not mentioning Omar by name, is clearly meant as a condemnation of her. It contains multiple “whereas” statements about the danger of accusing Jews of “dual loyalty.”

    So let’s talk about this idea of “dual loyalty,” and how it does and doesn’t relate to Omar’s comments. For many years, Jews were routinely accused of having dual loyalty, to both the United States and Israel, as a way of questioning whether they were truly American and could be trusted to do things such as serve in sensitive national security positions.

    That charge was anti-Semitic, because it was used to allege that every Jew was suspect, no matter what they thought about Israel, and that they could not be fully American because they were assumed to have too much affection for another country. It wasn’t about the particulars of U.S. policy or what Jews at the time were advocating; it was about who they (allegedly) were, their identity.

    Now, back to Omar. Here’s the truth: The whole purpose of the Democrats’ resolution is to enforce dual loyalty not among Jews, but among members of Congress, to make sure that criticism of Israel is punished in the most visible way possible. This, of course, includes Omar. As it happens, this punishment of criticism of Israel is exactly what the freshman congresswoman was complaining about, and has on multiple occasions. The fact that no one seems to acknowledge that this is her complaint shows how spectacularly disingenuous Omar’s critics are being.

    You may have noticed that almost no one uses “dual loyalty” as a way of questioning whether Jews are loyal to the United States anymore. Why has it almost disappeared as an anti-Semitic slur? Because, over the last three decades, support for Israel has become increasingly associated with conservative evangelicals and the Republican Party.

    #98604
    zn
    Moderator

    Republicans and Democrats Say Their Criticism of Ilhan Omar Is About Anti-Semitism. They’re Gaslighting You.

    Mehdi Hasan

    https://theintercept.com/2019/03/05/republicans-and-democrats-say-their-criticism-of-ilhan-omar-is-about-anti-semitism-theyre-gaslighting-you/?fbclid=IwAR29nGRkiuQvsdI_tjJMaZT1OHByXuDWdFRTVtViXZ3SE6C6Rx2VVboepYE

    SO LET ME get this straight: The president of the United States has called neo-Nazis “very fine people”; retweeted neo-Nazis; told an audience of Jewish-Americans that Israel is “your country”; and indulged in viciously anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. While running for office, he tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton inside a Star of David, next to a pile of cash; told an audience of Jewish donors, “You want to control your politicians, that’s fine”; and put out a campaign ad that attacked three rich and powerful Jewish figures. While a private citizen, he insisted only “short guys that wear yarmulkes” should count his money and kept a book of Adolf Hitler’s speeches on his bedside table.

    He has never apologized for any of this. Nor has he been censured by Congress.

    Since coming to office, he has hired, among others, Sebastian Gorka — who made the Nazi-linked Hungarian group Vitézi Rend “proud” when he wore its medal to an inauguration ball — and Steve Bannon, who didn’t want his daughters attending a particular school in Los Angeles because of “the number of Jews.”

    Neither of them has apologized. Nor have they been censured by Congress.

    In the Senate, Ted Cruz has denounced “New York values” while on the campaign trail, and Sen. Chuck Grassley has suggested that Jewish philanthropist George Soros paid the protesters who confronted then-Sen. Jeff Flake in an elevator with their stories of sexual assault last October.

    Neither of them has apologized. Nor have they been censured by Congress.

    In the House, Republican members have referred to themselves as “David Duke without the baggage,” accused Soros of turning on his “fellow Jews” and taking “the property that they owned,” claimed that Soros funded the far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, sat on panels with white nationalists, invited a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union, and tweeted that three Jewish billionaires — Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and Tom Steyer — were trying to “buy” the midterms. On Sunday, Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted that Steyer — whose name he spelled as “$teyer” and whose father is Jewish — was trying to influence Rep. Jerry Nadler (who is Jewish) to investigate Donald Trump.

    None of these Republicans have ever apologized. Nor have they been censured by Congress.

    Trump and the Republicans’ favorite cable channels, Fox News and Fox Business Network, have run segments in which guests have referred to the State Department as “Soros-occupied” and accused Soros of working with the Nazis, while top-rated Fox host Sean Hannity used to regularly interview a neo-Nazi on his radio show. Their favorite news website, Breitbart, has referred to columnist Bill Kristol as a “renegade Jew” and to columnist Anne Applebaum as a “Polish, Jewish, American elitist.” Their favorite talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has spoken of a “Jewish lobby” and was accused of “borderline” anti-Semitism by the Anti-Defamation League for his comments about Jewish bankers.

    Last October, a far-right conspiracy theorist — who, like the president and other prominent Republicans, blamed “globalists” like Soros for allowing immigrant “invaders” to come into the United States — shot and killed 11 Jewish worshippers in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. To quote Adam Serwer of The Atlantic: “The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election.”

    On Wednesday, however, the House Democratic leadership will try and formally censure Rep. Ilhan Omar — a black Somali-American Muslim woman who came to the United States as a refugee, and who, in recent days, has been compared to the 9/11 terrorists by Republicans in West Virginia and described as “filth” by an adviser to the president — for saying that she wanted “to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” Her fellow congressional Democrats have said little or nothing about the aforementioned and shameful Republican record of anti-Semitism, but many have joined the pile-on against Omar. One of them — Rep. Juan Vargas — went out of his way to insist, rather revealingly, that “questioning support for the U.S.-Israel relationship is unacceptable.”

    So my simple point is this: Whether or not you agree with Omar’s remarks, whether or not you were personally offended, anyone who tells you that these nonstop, bipartisan political attacks on her are about fighting anti-Semitism is gaslighting you.

    #98619
    Billy_T
    Participant

    Coupla more useful articles — at the risk of a kind of counter-piling on . . .

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/06/ilhan-omar-weaponisation-of-anti-semitism

    It contains an article to yet another good one, with a link to a video of her comments. It’s a very long URL, so I shortened it:

    https://preview.tinyurl.com/y2qbjufa

    In my view, nothing she said was anti-Semitic, inaccurate, much less “hate-filled.” And the uproar over her comments have literally endangered Omar and Tlaib. They’re getting constant death threats.

    Soooo pissed off at the Dems for caving to the GOP on this one. They should have rallied around her. Stood tall, unified, etc.

    #98739
    zn
    Moderator

    #98848
    zn
    Moderator

    Fox News condemns Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Omar

    The Washington Post

    https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2019/03/11/Jeanine-Pirro-Fox-News-condemns-remarks-Muslim-Rep-Ilhan-Omar-hijab/stories/201903110129

    Fox News Channel has condemned one of its hosts, Jeanine Pirro, amid mounting criticism over her recent on-air remarks about Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

    Ms. Pirro, also known as Judge Jeanine, opened her show Saturday criticizing Ms. Omar for what she called “anti-Israel sentiment” and questioned whether it was rooted in Ms. Omar’s Islamic beliefs.

    Ms. Omar, a Somali immigrant, has been critical of Israel and has been accused – even within her own party – of invoking anti-Semitic tropes.

    “She’s not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat Party,” Ms. Pirro said about the freshman congresswoman. “So if it’s not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from?

    “Think about it,” she added. “Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran 33:59, tells women to cover so they won’t get molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”

    Ms. Pirro’s comments drew criticism from Fox News Channel, as well as at least one of her colleagues.

    “We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar,” network executives said in a statement to The Washington Post. “They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.”

    And Hufsa Kamal, an associate producer for Fox News’ “Special Report With Bret Baier,” called out Ms. Pirro on Twitter for “spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America.”

    Ms. Omar thanked Fox News on Monday for condemning the host’s comments, tweeting: “No one’s commitment to our constitution should be questioned because of their faith or country of birth.”

    Ms. Pirro defended her remarks, saying she did not call Ms. Omar “un-American.”

    “I’ve seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night’s show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American,” Ms. Pirro said in her own statement. “My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution. I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today.”

    Ms. Omar has faced her own share of criticism, being accused of anti-Semitic tropes.

    An outspoken critic of Israel, Ms. Omar has courted controversy with provocative remarks that some say invoke anti-Semitic stereotypes. The pattern has alarmed many Jews, and as Ms. Omar faced yet another firestorm last week, community leaders on both sides voiced pain and confusion, fearing that the comments could damage an alliance they have spent years trying to nurture.

    Somali community activist Omar Jamal of St. Paul said he is in touch with local Jewish leaders about how the two sides can reaffirm their solidarity at a moment of crisis. He said that he supported Ms. Omar’s congressional campaign but that her comments are “wrong, period.”

    “She can solve this problem if she wants to,” Mr. Jamal said. “This is up to Ilhan Omar. She has really spoken in a very dangerous way, and it’s going to be up to her to reach out to people and fix this.”

    The controversy has roiled the Twin Cities, where Ms. Omar, a Democrat, represents Minneapolis and its large Somali American community, as well as several neighborhoods that have been home to Jews for generations. The liberal and racially diverse 5th Congressional District was previously represented by state Attorney General Keith Ellison, who in 2006 made history as the first Muslim elected to Congress.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., continues to defend the congresswoman.

    “I don’t think our colleague is anti-Semitic,” Ms. Pelosi said Friday at the Economic Club, according to the Hill. “I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn’t understand that some of them are fraught with meaning.”

    Ms. Pirro also took issue with that defense.

    #98849
    zn
    Moderator

    Fox News condemns Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Omar

    The Washington Post

    https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2019/03/11/Jeanine-Pirro-Fox-News-condemns-remarks-Muslim-Rep-Ilhan-Omar-hijab/stories/201903110129

    Fox News Channel has condemned one of its hosts, Jeanine Pirro, amid mounting criticism over her recent on-air remarks about Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

    Ms. Pirro, also known as Judge Jeanine, opened her show Saturday criticizing Ms. Omar for what she called “anti-Israel sentiment” and questioned whether it was rooted in Ms. Omar’s Islamic beliefs.

    Ms. Omar, a Somali immigrant, has been critical of Israel and has been accused – even within her own party – of invoking anti-Semitic tropes.

    “She’s not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat Party,” Ms. Pirro said about the freshman congresswoman. “So if it’s not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from?

    “Think about it,” she added. “Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran 33:59, tells women to cover so they won’t get molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”

    Ms. Pirro’s comments drew criticism from Fox News Channel, as well as at least one of her colleagues.

    “We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar,” network executives said in a statement to The Washington Post. “They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.”

    And Hufsa Kamal, an associate producer for Fox News’ “Special Report With Bret Baier,” called out Ms. Pirro on Twitter for “spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America.”

    Ms. Omar thanked Fox News on Monday for condemning the host’s comments, tweeting: “No one’s commitment to our constitution should be questioned because of their faith or country of birth.”

    Ms. Pirro defended her remarks, saying she did not call Ms. Omar “un-American.”

    “I’ve seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night’s show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American,” Ms. Pirro said in her own statement. “My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution. I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today.”

    Ms. Omar has faced her own share of criticism, being accused of anti-Semitic tropes.

    An outspoken critic of Israel, Ms. Omar has courted controversy with provocative remarks that some say invoke anti-Semitic stereotypes. The pattern has alarmed many Jews, and as Ms. Omar faced yet another firestorm last week, community leaders on both sides voiced pain and confusion, fearing that the comments could damage an alliance they have spent years trying to nurture.

    Somali community activist Omar Jamal of St. Paul said he is in touch with local Jewish leaders about how the two sides can reaffirm their solidarity at a moment of crisis. He said that he supported Ms. Omar’s congressional campaign but that her comments are “wrong, period.”

    “She can solve this problem if she wants to,” Mr. Jamal said. “This is up to Ilhan Omar. She has really spoken in a very dangerous way, and it’s going to be up to her to reach out to people and fix this.”

    The controversy has roiled the Twin Cities, where Ms. Omar, a Democrat, represents Minneapolis and its large Somali American community, as well as several neighborhoods that have been home to Jews for generations. The liberal and racially diverse 5th Congressional District was previously represented by state Attorney General Keith Ellison, who in 2006 made history as the first Muslim elected to Congress.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., continues to defend the congresswoman.

    “I don’t think our colleague is anti-Semitic,” Ms. Pelosi said Friday at the Economic Club, according to the Hill. “I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn’t understand that some of them are fraught with meaning.”

    Ms. Pirro also took issue with that defense.

    #98862
    zn
    Moderator

    As an Israeli American, I agree with Ilhan Omar much more than the US politicians weaponising antisemitism
    Omar is challenging decades-long unconditional American support for Israel while many American legislators are demanding loyalty oaths that enable Israel to continue doing as it pleases – with total impunity

    Mairav Zonszein

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ilhan-omar-israel-palestine-jews-antisemitism-a8810861.html?fbclid=IwAR0NZq6_kVz8kauwh0aFyMHi_ASj1Q7rAV7fG-nugAQZ3qPT-vF-DRVlTE8

    While freshman Minnesota Congresswoman Omar’s alleged antisemitism has been dominating the headlines in the US in recent weeks, in Israel, the controversies have barely been reported on in Hebrew media, and you’d be hard-pressed to find many Israelis who even know who she is. Yet much of the attacks and condemnations she is facing originate in talking points and policies created by the Israeli right, specifically under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the last decade.

    Omar has made repeated claims in recent weeks – some not too carefully crafted — that Israel (a country that holds millions of Palestinians under violent occupation) has outsized influence on American foreign policy and that its lobbyists use money to maintain that support.

    Since Sunday, she has been defending herself against a barrage of attacks from both Democrats and Republicans for one sentence – arguably one word — she said at an event last week: “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” This has been slammed as a charge of dual loyalty (though she did not specify Jews directly in her comments), an antisemitic trope.

    As this has been going on, Omar has been facing death threats and Islamophobic attacks herself, including a poster last week at a Republican Party event which likened her to 9/11 terrorists.

    Omar is one of only two Muslim women ever elected to Congress, along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, and they are both the first members of Congress to openly support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. This has made them the targets of an incomparable onslaught of scrutiny and attacks.

    The Israeli government has invested millions of dollars in its campaign to combat BDS around the world, and has worked hard (and largely succeeded) to equate BDS – a non-violent tactic to secure Palestinian rights — with antisemitism, arguing that it denies Israel the right to exist. As an Israeli and a Jew, I do not challenge Israel’s right to exist, but I do challenge its right to exist as the Jewish supremacist, undemocratic, violent state that it is. That does not make me an antisemite, and neither does solidarity with the call for BDS.

    Yet this talking point has been fully adopted in Washington. When you look at the anti-BDS legislation that has already swept half of the US and further efforts on a federal level to penalise American businesses which so much as favour a boycott of Israel, it’s no wonder Omar is being attacked. It’s practically a given she would be. A Muslim congresswoman supporting a boycott of Israel is unprecedented in Washington. She is challenging decades-long unconditional American support for Israel while many American legislators are demanding loyalty oaths that enable Israel to continue doing as it pleases – with total impunity.

    As Democratic Representative Juan Vargas from California inadvertently confirmed in a tweet denouncing Omar, “questioning support for the US-Israel relationship is unacceptable.” President Donald Trump’s tweet Tuesday that Omar is “under fire for her terrible comments concerning Israel” and that it is a “dark day for Israel” also appeared to be an admission that this has nothing to do with Jews or antisemitism and everything to do with criticizing Israel and US foreign policy.

    It’s important to highlight that at the core of the contemporary dual loyalty canard is Zionism’s goal that there be no daylight between Jewish religious, ethnic and national identities. Israel claims to speak for Jews globally and then when people call out Israeli policies, it can conveniently cry out antisemitism. This is the weaponization of antisemitism that we are seeing play out in American domestic politics, and that the Democratic leadership is conceding to.

    The fact is that Israel under Netanyahu has normalized right-wing antisemitism in countries like Hungary and the US, while simultaneously demonizing as antisemitic those who try and undermine Israel’s infrastructure of occupation. Without that precedent, the US government would not have the credentials to do to Ilhan Omar what it is doing.

    House Democrats have delayed a vote that was scheduled for today on a resolution condemning antisemitism that does not mention Omar by name but is clearly meant to serve as a rebuke of her comments. It does not offer anything innovative about fighting real threats of antisemitism. If it is meant to address the dual loyalty charge, then where was the resolution after President Trump told a room full of American Jews in December that Israel is “your country”?

    During the event at which Omar made the statement for which she is under attack, Omar also said, after acknowledging the emotional connection some American Jews have to Israel and likening it to her children’s connection to Somalia: “But we never really allow space for the stories of Palestinians seeking safety and sanctuary to be uplifted. And to me… the dehumanization and the silencing of a particular pain and suffering of people should not be OK and normal. And you can’t be in the practice of humanizing and uplifting the suffering of one if you’re not willing to do that for everyone.”

    As a Jew, an American and an Israeli, these sentiments represent my values much more than those claiming to be combatting antisemitism under the guise of the preservation of the US-Israel special relationship.

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